Punto Fijo is the capital city of the municipality of Carirubana in northern

Falcón Falcón State (, ) is one of the 23 States of Venezuela, states of Venezuela. The state capital is Coro, Venezuela, Coro. The state was named after Juan Crisóstomo Falcón. History Early history Present day Falcón State was first explored ...

State,

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

. It is located on the southwestern coast of the

Paraguaná Peninsula Paraguaná () is a peninsula and tied island in Venezuela, situated in the north of Falcón State, and comprises the municipalities of Carirubana, Los Taques and Falcón. The island of Aruba lies to the north. Bonaire and Curaçao are slight ...

. Its metropolitan area includes the parishes of Norte, Carirubana,

Punta Cardón Punta Cardón is a town and parish in the Carirubana autonomous municipality of Falcón state, Venezuela. The town was once a poor fishing community on the Gulf of Coro on the northwest coast of Venezuela. Since the mid-1940s the community has ...

and the parish of Judibana in the municipality of Los Taques. Punto Fijo is the largest city in

State.

History

Punto Fijo was founded in the early 1940s, on the outskirts of two refinery operations established by

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company was a Trust (business), corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil of Ohio, Standard Oil Company (Ohio), which had been founde ...

and

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

during the 1940s. Despite the name of the 1958

Puntofijo Pact The Puntofijo Pact was a formal arrangement arrived at between representatives of Venezuela's three main political parties in 1958, Acción Democrática (AD), COPEI (Social Christian Party), and Unión Republicana Democrática (URD), for the ...

, Punto Fijo is unrelated to the pact (the pact was signed at Puntofijo Residence in

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

). Punto Fijo has an estimated population of 270,000 (est. 2002

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

), mostly in the urban center. Punto Fijo's name is commonly attributed to the late Rafael González Estaba, former city historian, who said that the place where the city now stands was a common stop (the "fixed point") for passers-by and fishermen.

Economy

Punto Fijo has the world's second largest oil refinery complex, the Paraguaná Refinery Complex (CRP is its Spanish acronym), which consists of the Amuay and Cardón Refineries (both part of the CRP). The operation once refined around 1 million barrels per day, and all of these petroleum products were fuel for the local and regional economy. Also, Punto Fijo possesses the second most important fishing fleet in Venezuela, and has an industrial zone where electronics plants and light machinery plants are located. Punto Fijo includes a Free Zone for Touristic Investment allowing importation of goods free of tariffs. The progressive development that Punto Fijo is facing currently has given incentive to local, municipal, state and national authorities to carry out public building works that the city needed years ago. This includes the main bus station, repairs to public roads, and settlement of a new thermoelectricity energy plant "Josefa Camejo". The private sector has made investments as well, like the Sambil Mall Paraguaná, and Paraguaná Mall. These new complexes now join the

Centro Comercial y Recreacional Las Virtudes Mall Centro may refer to: Places Brazil *Centro, Santa Maria, a neighborhood in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil * Centro, Porto Alegre, a neighborhood of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil * Centro (Duque de Caxias), a neighborhood of Du ...

Transportation

Punto Fijo is crisscrossed from north to south and east to west by numerous avenues. A new bus terminal is under construction and expected to be ready by beginning 2010. The city is linked to Coro with a modern two-laned highway passing through the whole isthmus offering great views of the

Médanos de Coro National Park Médanos de Coro National Park (''Parque Nacional Los Médanos de Coro'') is a Venezuelan national park located in the state of Falcón, near the city of Coro on the road that leads to Paraguaná. The National Park was created in 1974. The par ...

as well as

flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...

found in this semi-arid region. The air transport needs of Punto Fijo's are served by Las Piedras Airport, also known as

Josefa Camejo International Airport Josefa Camejo International Airport , is an airport serving the Paraguaná Peninsula in Venezuela. The airport is named in honor of Josefa Camejo, a heroine of the Venezuelan War of Independence. On May 22, 2018, Aruba Airlines inaugurated what, ...

Geography

The city is located on the southwestern coast of the

. Its metropolitan area includes the parishes of Norte, Carirubana,

and the parish of Judibana in the municipality of Los Taques. It is the largest city in Falcón State.

Climate

According to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

, Punto Fijo has a

hot arid climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk'') is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

, abbreviated as ''BWh''. The weather is hot year round. The majority of the scanty rain falls from August to December, but the city is the driest in South America outside the

Arid Diagonal The Arid Diagonal () is a contiguous zone of arid and semi-arid climate that traverses South America from coastal Peru in the Northwest to Argentine Patagonia in the Southeast, including large swathes of Bolivia and Chile. The Arid Diagonal encom ...

, receiving only around of rainfall per year – only a third as much as semiarid

Maracaibo Maracaibo ( , ; ) is a city and municipality in northwestern Venezuela, on the western shore of the strait that connects Lake Maracaibo to the Gulf of Venezuela. It is the largest city in Venezuela and is List of cities in Venezuela by population ...

and

Riohacha Riohacha (; Wayuu: ) is a city in the Riohacha Municipality in the northern Caribbean Region of Colombia by the mouth of the Ranchería River and the Caribbean Sea. It is the capital city of the La Guajira Department. It has a sandy beach wa ...

References

External links

"Paraguaná: la península de la amistad"
by Rafael Aranguren, ''Venezuela Analítica'', retrieved November 3, 2005. {{Authority control Cities in Falcón